Big donation nets new goal for Sioux Falls hockey

Stampede owners donate $100K for new arena, offer fundraising challenge for community

Mar. 6, 2013

Joe Zueger, president of Ice Sports Association, announces Wednesday a $100,000 donation from the Stampede ownership group, Sioux Falls Sports, to fund the Scheels IcePlex. Sioux Falls Sports will donate an additional $100,000 if the ISA Community Appeals Campaign can raise that much before the campaign ends March 29. / Elisha Page / Argus Leader

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$100K Hat Trick

• Sioux Falls Sports will donate $100,000 to the campaign appeal for a new ice arena • The community must match that amount in donations by March 29 • If that goal is met, Sioux Falls Sports will provide an additional $100,000

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The Sioux Falls Stampede announced Wednesday that they will give up to a $200,000 donation in support of a new three-sheet hockey arena in Sioux Falls.

The donation is being dubbed the “$100K Hat Trick,” referring to a single player scoring three goals in one game.

Sioux Falls Sports, the ownership group of the Sioux Falls Stampede Hockey Club, will donate an initial $100,000 in support of the Ice Sports Association’s Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce appeals campaign to raise $1.5 million. The pledge is part of a challenge for the community to match the $100,000 in donations. If that matching goal is met, Sioux Falls Sports would provide a second $100,000 gift to the campaign.

The Ice Sports Association’s appeals campaign ends March 29 as part of an overall effort to raise $7.7 million for its Scheels Iceplex, a three-sheet ice rink to be built at the Sanford Sports Complex. The matching donation for the $100K Hat Trick must be raised by then, said Joe Zueger, president of the Ice Sports Association.

“This group has been exceedingly supportive of what we’re doing,” to create more skating space for girls and boys in the community, Zueger said of the Stampede. “Today, we’re just that much closer.”

The TJ Reinsch Youth Hockey Foundation, named after a youth hockey coach who died in 2010, made the first matching pledge of $3,000.

The TJ Reinsch foundation was created to support youth hockey in Sioux Falls and Sioux City, said Kelly Wiese, one of the directors. The ice arena is a worthy cause to support because it will help more kids, he said.

“As we get three sheets of ice, more kids can get into hockey and have that experience,” he said. “TJ wasn’t just a coach, he was a mentor,” to the kids on his team.

Tom Garrity, president and CEO of Sioux Falls Sports, said supporting the goal of building a new arena is the right thing to do and fits with the organization’s mission.

“There is nothing more important to the future of our team and to the future of ice sports in our community than the development of our young skaters,” he said.

The ice association had raised $5 million heading into the Chamber appeals campaign in November, and Zueger said association members are confident that they will meet the $1.5 million goal.

They already are in the design process of the arena with hopes of breaking ground by the end of the year for an opening date at the end of 2014.

Mayor Mike Huether urged people in the community to continue supporting not only the effort to build a new ice arena but other community projects such as a separate push to build new tennis courts in town. Without that community support, those efforts still can fall short, he said.

“In reality, we’re just crossing the blue line,” he said of the donation announced Wednesday. “We haven’t scored the ultimate goal yet.”